Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Five books to change your mind

Anti-intellectualism in American Life was written in the 1960s but, again, couldn’t be more timely today. It is an insightful study that gained its author, Richard Hofstadter, a Pulitzer prize. Later on, the book was forgotten for a while but now it is becoming a bestseller and is visible on bookstore shelves once again. Hofstadter explored how resentment of the life of the mind was a long-standing undercurrent in US culture and society. With the rise of populism and illiberal democracies today, anti-intellectual rhetoric has increased. The romanticisation of “the real people” and the denigration of the intellectual are familiar signs for anyone who has studied ultranationalism and tribalism. Hofstadter shows us that this anti-intellectual strand is nothing new, yet it might bring unexpected consequences.